I said I'll guard my ways, I'll not sin with my tongue.
I will guard my mouth as with the muzzle, when I'm before one who's hostile.
I was muted still, refraining even from God.
My pain stirred as I mused, my heart burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue, Lord make me know my end.
And the measure of my pleading days, behold my days are a handbreadth,
and my lifetime has nothing in your sight.
Every man as he stands is a mere breath, every man as he walks like a shadow.
Causing an uproar for nothing,
hoarding riches when he knows not who will gather them.
Now Lord, for what shall I seek?
All of my hope is in you.
Lord make me know my end.
And the measure of my pleading days, behold my days are a handbreadth,
and my lifetime has nothing in your sight.
Save me from my sins and the taunting of fools.
I shut my mouth because it was your doing.
Remove these strokes of your hand.
You chasten a man for iniquity and consume as a moth what he holds dear.
Surely every man is a mere breath.
Lord make me know my end.
And the measure of my pleading days, behold my days are a handbreadth,
and my lifetime has nothing in your sight.
Hear
my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry.
Be not silent at the tears of the stranger, a foreigner like all my fathers.
Turn your gaze that I may smile again before I go my way.
And I am no more.
Lord make me know my end.
And the measure of my pleading days, behold my days are a handbreadth,
and my lifetime has nothing in your sight.